Written Answers Wednesday Friday 25 August 2006

Scottish Executive

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many trained urban search and rescue technicians are available throughout each day.

Hugh Henry: The Scottish Executive funds the centralised training for all Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) urban search and rescue (USAR) technicians and USAR operators. To the present date, a total of 90 FRS personnel have been trained to USAR Technician standard and 450 to USAR Operator level.

  Additionally, the Executive supports, through central funding, the enhanced continuation training course at Mines Rescue in Fife for all FRS USAR personnel and currently around 125 personnel have attended this course.

  The actual number of these personnel on duty and available each day is a matter for each individual FRS to determine.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new appliances have been provided by the Scottish Executive to the fire and rescue authorities for the New Dimension programme.

Hugh Henry: The Scottish Executive in collaboration with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have to date funded 13 new vehicles as part of the New Dimension programme.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fire and rescue services have been identified as New Dimension services.

Hugh Henry: The enhanced New Dimension capability and resilience arrangements for Scotland involve all eight Fire and Rescue Services in line with the original project strategy approved by ministers and supported by the initial £5 million additional funding that was announced in February 2002 by the then Justice Minister Jim Wallace. This strategy continues to be supported and funded by the Scottish Executive.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what planning assumptions were used to assist the selection of suitable fire and rescue services for the New Dimension programme.

Hugh Henry: The objective of the New Dimension programme in Scotland is to enhance the resilience of the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) and their capability to deal collectively with catastrophic incidents as well as the more frequently occurring major incidents and natural disasters that require specialist equipment and trained personnel.

  National risk assessment and planning guidance developed by a joint Chief Fire Officers’ Association working group that also involved the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the HM Fire Inspectorates in Scotland and England was issued to all FRS in 2002 to support this work.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what expected time and travel distance are used in the planning assumptions for the New Dimension programme in Scotland.

Hugh Henry: As the Scottish strategy is predicated around an enhanced capability being available across all eight Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), the original planning assumptions for travel and time of deployment are determined by the nature of the risk and location of the specialist resources in each of the FRS. The deployment arrangements for the specialist resources such as Mass Decontamination and Major Incident Units are in line with the current UK assumptions but tailored to the geography and risk across Scotland.

  These planning assumptions including time and travel predictions are currently being reviewed in line with the on-going work being developed by the Home Office as part of the national Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Model Response options.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has produced person specifications, job descriptions or self-assessment and selection criteria for use by chief fire officers in Scotland in selecting candidates for urban search and rescue training equivalent to those issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Hugh Henry: Any relevant national standards which are developed and approved through the appropriate bodies, that provide Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) with guidance in such areas as person specifications, job descriptions and individual selection criteria, would as a matter of course, be promulgated through existing channels to all FRS including those in Scotland.

  However, any decision on selection of their staff for any specific role is the discretion and responsibility of each individual FRS and not the Scottish Executive.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding it is making available to fire and rescue services to cover the additional personnel costs associated with the New Dimension programme.

Hugh Henry: The New Dimension programme in Scotland has been developed in full collaboration with all eight Fire and Rescue Services (FRS). Its aim is to enhance day-to-day capability across all eight FRS by increasing their level of capability and resilience with the necessary resources and training to meet any likely event. In line with this strategy, the FRSs in Scotland undertook where appropriate to integrate these new resources into their existing establishment levels.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether fire and rescue services in Scotland which are deemed to be New Dimension services are nominally part of Scottish-wide resilience capacity or UK-wide resilience capacity.

Hugh Henry: The New Dimension strategy in Scotland involves all eight Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) who have undertaken as part of a Scottish-wide Mutual Aid arrangement to support any major incident occurring in Scotland. The present Scottish Mutual Aid agreement also covers Scottish FRS providing support across the remainder of the UK subject to the prevailing demands at the time of the request. As part of these arrangements, the Chief Fire Officers’ Association Scotland are leading in the development of a Scottish Resource Co-ordinating Centre which will link our Scottish resources into the English co-ordinating centre currently located in West Yorkshire FRS.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what impact there will be on the ability of fire and rescue services to co-operate at New Dimension incidents as a consequence of any different standards of training and equipment in different parts of the United Kingdom.

Hugh Henry: Training standards that are applicable to New Dimension are the same across the UK. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) personnel have been trained to those recognised standards and in some areas of Urban Search and Rescue to a more enhanced level.

  The deployment arrangements in Scotland for any new dimension event or similar major incident involve the provision of suitably trained and competent personnel being simultaneously deployed with the appropriate vehicles and standardised equipment.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the New Dimension national co-ordination centre is aware of any technical and skill differences in fire and rescue services across the United Kingdom and within Scotland.

Hugh Henry: The Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) national New Dimension Co-ordinating Centre located at West Yorkshire FRS was established to co-ordinate the availability of the English fleet of vehicles and to co-ordinate requests for cross regional and national mobilisation.

  It does not maintain any records or details of specific skills of personnel from any FRS across the UK. Current dedicated Scottish co-ordination arrangements are being led by the Chief Fire Officers Association Scotland which will provide a dynamic link of all Scottish resources into the co-ordination centre at West Yorkshire.

  However, as detailed in the response to the answer to S2W-27595 on 25 August 2006, the training and development of personnel across the UK is to the same set of core standards.

Emergency Planning

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive on whose advice it decided to vary the New Dimensions programme in Scotland from the programme led by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

Hugh Henry: The Scottish Executive provided the initial funding in 2002 to support additional capability and resilience in both the areas of Mass Decontamination and Specialist Rescue, whilst the original funding provided in England and Wales during this period by the then Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, was dedicated to developing only a mass decontamination capability. Consequently, the Scottish programme was able to progress ahead of the rest of the UK and this included the procurement of all the specialist rescue equipment and the initial vehicles in accordance with the agreed strategy which was then delivered in advance of the subsequent ODPM programme.